Michigan Tribal Leaders: “Shut Down Line 5 — No Tunnel”

LANSING, Mich. — The rally billed as Protect Michigan’s Water, Land & Communities at the steps of Michigan’s State Capitol on Wednesday turned into a rally to shut down Canadian-based Enbridge’s 73-year-old Line 5.

Approximately 150 tribal leaders, environmentalists, and other allies gathered Wednesday in Lansing, Mich. to bring attention to the need to shut down the aging pipeline.

The fear of a Line 5 burst

For more than a decade, tribal leaders and others have called for the shutdown of Line 5, which runs through the Straits of Mackinac, separating Michigan’s Lower and Upper Peninsulas. The 645-mile pipeline was built to last 50 years, but oil still runs through it, with periodic leaks. Enbridge’s answer to concerns about a pipeline burst in the Straits of Mackinac is a proposed four-mile tunnel that would supposedly protect against oil spills.

Tribal leaders and other experts say Enbridge is wrong and want the pipeline shut down.

Winnay Wemigwase, tribal chairperson of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, provided a brief history of what the Great Lakes — and, more specifically, the Straits of Mackinac — have meant to the Odawa people, who have lived in Michigan for centuries.

“This place is not just geography. The Straits of Mackinac is sacred ground. It is the heart of our identity. The cradle of our creation stories. The burial grounds of our ancestors, and the highway of our survival,” Wemigwase said.

“Stopping the Enbridge Line 5 tunnel is not about being anti-progress. It is about being pro survival. It is about deciding that the pure fresh waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are worth more than the quarterly points of a foreign oil company. Remember, we do not inherit the Great Lakes from our ancestors. We borrow them from our children,” Wemigwase said as she ended her remarks.

Chief Lucas Sprague, from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, recounted a series of federal policies that tried to make Native people extinct.

“This brings us here to 2026. Say your Indian tribe is now part of the Three Fires Confederacy. So our tribe has no 1836 treaty, but guess what? We are here to band together. I don’t care if we have a treaty or not. We’re here to support our relatives. So when the forces of these corporations threaten our Mother Earth, you know what it’s doing? It’s reigniting the historical trauma in our blood. But also, it’s reigniting that fire from our warriors and their chiefs. I can see the energy today,” Sprague proclaimed.

The fear of man camps

For Andrea Pierce (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians), who is the co-founder and chair of the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party, her concerns extend beyond the potential damage from an oil spill. She is concerned about human trafficking that happens when oil companies bring in construction workers.

“I want to remind people about what’s coming when they build this tunnel. Part of that is going to be missing murdered Indigenous relations. These man camps that come. We already know these are coming, right? And if you don’t know, let me tell you what’s coming. Enbridge always has human sexual trafficking in their camps. It has been proven by law, it’s been proven by the FBI. It happens. We disappear. Our families disappear. Our women, our men, our children, disappear when these pipe lanes and tunnels start building in our communities. I don’t want us to disappear,” Pierce said with emotion.

Beyond the Straits of Mackinac

Dr. Nichole Keway Biber, a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, said concerns about Line 5 extend beyond the four-mile section beneath the Straits of Mackinac.

“Line 5 is over 20 long years past its 50-year projected lifespan,” Biber said. “The tunnel proposes adding on 99 additional years to Michigan’s burden of risk.”

Biber also pointed to the environmental risks associated with the pipeline’s entire 645-mile route, rather than focusing only on the section beneath the Straits.

“Let us not forget that, that as idiotic, as those four miles of decrepit oil pipeline running along the bottomlands of sacred [Straits of Mackinac], obviously are but a short portion of the 645 miles of Line 5 oil pipeline that has already leaked more than one million gallons into sensitive ecosystems along its entire ill-fated length,” Biber said.

For Biber, the debate over Line 5 is also part of a larger discussion about moving away from fossil fuels and protecting future generations.

“This is foreign infrastructure for a product that must be retired in short order if we are to retain any hope of stopping and reversing the decimation of ecosystems that are irreplaceable to our children’s future,” Biber said.

She also criticized what she described as the pipeline’s broader environmental impact on Michigan communities, including Detroit, where part of its product reaches the Marathon Oil refinery.

“With part of the product finding its way to the Marathon Oil Refinery in Detroit, where Michigan’s most toxic zip code 48217 is home to 7,000 Detroiters who suffer from higher rates of asthma and cancer than most of the country,” Biber said. “Environmental racism, and destruction from end-to-end. Issuing permits with inadequate regulations are no deterrent.”

Tunnel engineer says a Line 5 tunnel is dangerous

Brian J. O’Mara, a Michigan native who graduated from Michigan Technological University with a degree in geological engineering, raised concerns about the safety of placing an oil pipeline inside a tunnel beneath the Straits.

O’Mara said he has worked in environmental protection for about 40 years, including on tunnel projects, but has never worked on a tunnel designed to carry oil.

“I can tell you, none of them were oil tunnels. You know why? Nobody puts oil in a tunnel except Enbridge,” O’Mara said.

O’Mara questioned whether the proposed tunnel would provide enough protection for the Great Lakes in the event of a pipeline failure.

“The reason is a tunnel is a confined space, and if it’s left open, the way the Enbridge design is, it’s susceptible to fire, floods, explosions, and destruction, and ultimately collapse,” O’Mara said.

O’Mara has served as an expert witness before the Michigan Public Service Commission on the Line 5 project. He said he was asked to examine whether the tunnel could withstand a fire or explosion.

“I was asked to look at if the tunnel would survive a fire or an explosion. The true answer is no. Enbridge had some experts that said it could, but they weren’t looking at worst case scenarios and that’s their job. So the commission was mislead,” O’Mara said.

He also questioned whether the tunnel could contain oil following a major pipeline rupture.

“I was looking at a full-bore rupture of the 30-inch line,” O’Mara said. “If that ruptures, and there is a fire that brings down the tunnel liner, there’s nothing that’s going to contain that oil. You heard about how long it took Enbridge to figure out they had a leak on the Kalamazoo River. It’s pumping thousands of gallons a minute. It could release hundreds of thousands or millions of gallons of oil or natural gas liquids before it is shut down. There is no containing that.”

The concerns raised by Biber and O’Mara reflect the broader opposition voiced throughout Wednesday’s rally. While Enbridge has proposed the tunnel as a way to address concerns surrounding Line 5, tribal leaders and their allies argue that the project would continue the risks posed by the aging pipeline rather than eliminate them.

A call to action

Liz Kirkwood, executive director of Flow Water Advocates, asked those gathered Wednesday to do three things: tell Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who campaigned in 2018 saying she would shut down Line 5, to “finish the job”; show up at the Michigan Public Service Commission when it takes up the next steps for the tunnel; and question candidates running for office in the midterm elections about their stance on Line 5.

Wednesday’s rally was organized by the Anishinaabe Friendship Center.

For those gathered at the Capitol, the answer remains the same: shut down Line 5 — no tunnel.